Full transcript
0:02what do all of these words have in
0:05common thermometer barometer diameter
0:09odometer and
0:11parameter all of these words end in
0:14meter you've probably heard this word
0:16before but what does it mean meter at
0:19the end of a word means
0:21measure you use all kinds of
0:24measurements each day how much sugar is
0:26needed in the cookies you're baking if
0:28it will be warm enough to leave your
0:30jacket at home how fast you're driving
0:33how much a bag of apples will cost and
0:35how much time it will take you to get
0:37from home to work most Americans are
0:40taught the English or standard system of
0:43measurement but never get a really good
0:45dose of the metric system lucky for you
0:47it is a much easier system to learn than
0:50the English system because all the
0:52measurements are base 10 meaning that
0:54when converting from one to another you
0:56will always be multiplying or dividing
0:59by a multiple of 10 this is much easier
1:02than trying to do calculations between
1:04ounces and pounds and feet and Miles
1:08because you may not be used to thinking
1:10metrically it may take a little practice
1:13using and working with the metric system
1:15before you gain a good understanding of
1:18it and become more fluent in the
1:20measurement language of scientists and
1:22most
1:23non-americans I challenge you to
1:25sprinkle a little more metric in your
1:27life maybe read the milliliter
1:29measurement on your soda can or glance
1:31at the kilometer reading on your
1:33speedometer being able to picture metric
1:36quantities will really help with the
1:38rest of this
1:39course we are going to start with the
1:41units of length so we can get back to
1:43this word meter that we started out with
1:46the meter is the basic unit of length in
1:48the metric system a meter is a tiny bit
1:51longer than a yard for distances much
1:55longer than a meter you would add the
1:56prefix kilo to make the measurement
1:59kilometer
2:00a kilometer is the metric version of our
2:03mile even though it's a bit shorter than
2:05our mile A kilometer is equivalent to
2:08exactly 1,000 M any unit that has the
2:12word kilo in front of it is equivalent
2:14to 1,000 units you can attach the prefix
2:18kilo to about anything if something
2:20takes 1,000 seconds it takes a kilos if
2:24a forest has 1,000 trees it has a kilo
2:28tree you get the idea idea for distances
2:31much shorter than a meter we would use
2:34either a centimeter or the
2:37millimeter a centimeter is about the
2:39width of your pinky and there are
2:41exactly 100 cm in a meter in fact
2:47anything that has the prefix centi is
2:50100th the size of that base unit this
2:53should be very easy to remember because
2:55there are 100 cents in a dollar one Cent
3:00is 100th of a dollar the last prefix you
3:03should be familiar with is Millie there
3:06are exactly 1,000 mime in a meter
3:11anything that has the prefix Millie is
3:141,000th the size of its base unit this
3:18one is a little bit more difficult to
3:20remember but it's definitely the prefix
3:22you would use the most in a chemistry
3:25class next on our list of important
3:27metric quantities is Mass
3:30this is one of the most important
3:32measurements a chemist makes mass is how
3:35much of something you have or the amount
3:37of matter in an object don't confuse
3:40this with volume which we'll get to in a
3:43bit Mass is measured using a balance and
3:46the basic unit for mass is the
3:49gram to give you an idea of the relative
3:52size of a gram the mass of a penny is
3:55about 2.5
3:57g sometimes people get confused fused
4:00with the difference between mass and
4:02weight they end up being quite similar
4:04because everything you and I do takes
4:06place on Earth but mass and weight
4:09differ because mass is how much of
4:11something you have and weight is the
4:13force of gravity on an object take a
4:17look at this example both of these
4:19blocks have the same mass